Summer term at St. Helen's but still no snogging! Penny comes close 'getting off' with someone but fails to seal the deal; blaming the tyranny of too many parents and not enough beer. As a consequence she starts the politically incorrect NSH Club with her friends at Girl Guide Camp. It's worse than you think... Excursions, fetes, parties, plays, concerts are all over and an endless round of holidays, sunburn and strawberries has begun. Read at home in Fremantle with fellow Mother of 4, TV producer and ex-private school wallflower Kate Vyvyan. 

Things are heating up at the cricket as the "Simon Saga" continues. Frankie says relax but Penny is anything but relaxed when she hears from Tracey (who heard it from Rat who heard it from Woody) that Simon might prefer her to Amanda! Betrayal, deceit, intrigue, Cointreau fuelled midnight feasts, Latin exams, lost knickers, odes to Edward Elgar...June has it all.

Read with operatic tenor and composer Perry Joyce on a boiling hot night in Broome with quite a noisy fridge in the background.  

Summer term! Tennis, swimming, watching cricket, riding ponies, drinking beers in the pub, all excellent activities enjoyed by 13 year old Penny. The list of lush boys grows ever longer and some even come to Penny's house(!) but unfortunately the only one that seems interested makes her want to puke...

Read with Mandy Orr and Chris Hedges after far too many gin and tonics on Rottnest Island, Western Australia; listen out for the sounds of crashing waves, giant mosquitoes and the clinking of ice.

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Easter 1984, spring has sprung, the sap is rising and Penny is awash with hormones. No amount of wholesome activities; roller-skating, hiking and bell-ringing can distract her from pursuing every teenage boy that has a pulse. Even at Granny's she's still out 'jogging for boys'. Read with Lucy Burghard on a warm Spring evening, back at the scene of most of the crimes, the garden of her childhood home. The birds are tweeting, the dogs are barking and Marian (Mother!) is pottering, pretending she's not eavesdropping....

Read under the critical glare of an actual modern day teenager (Sophie 17) and her mother (Katherine, would rather not say!) the excitement of life in 1984 reaches a peak when Penny skips school, stays home and watches television.

Valentine's Day rears its ugly head, the family head off ski-ing and Penny and her friends write to Jimmy Saville so see what he can fix for them. In conversation with broadcasting legend Christian Horgan. 

Opera Diva and comedian Penny Shaw reads her teenage diaries to a variety of horrified guests. Beginning in January 1984 when Penny is 13 and decided, completely, to become a singer.